<p>@PurpleTitan. I don’t think Vandy does that well (though they are doing better) in the finance placement. It won’t do too much better than Emory (despite the SAT gap, we make up for it with the b-school. We may actually outperform them some) and G-town has always placed really well. One would also expect the same for ND which has very high SAT’s and a top (and somethings rated “the” top UG b-school). As for attracting pre-meds, it isn’t a strategy so much as a perpetuation of a stereotype about a school “great for pre-med” (our admissions office is specifically trying to address this issue because they know it’s a weakness). For WashU and JHU, it actually holds water so pre-meds still go there in droves. However, most pre-med classes at Emory are not anywhere near as great as the science and computational courses typically taken by those who are not a part of that crowd. So while some incoming students still hold on to the belief that “Emory is great if you’re pre-med”, I feel as if students are trending away from the track once they actually experience how lackluster most of the pre-health core courses are and how they don’t really train that well for MCAT sort of thinking. On top of that, many grade hard. Eventually students just find other things to do and lately that has been start-ups (one guy was a member of the “fiscal note” trio that recently made a magazine’s list for top 10 college start-ups). However, once you are mainly known as a pre-med school, then the app. pool becomes less diverse. I also imagine that many such schools don’t have UG alums that well-represented in academia (as in pursued a doctorate in the sciences), so there isn’t really much incentive for more nerdy science students (whether they be pre-industry, pre-doctoral, pre-MDPhD…whatever) to show up and make their mark. Conversely, these schools have alumni very well-represented in things like the medical field. It appears to buck the trend and get more well-rounded science applicants takes a lot of proactive measures on the part of the admissions team and the administration. </p>
<p>A lot of it has to with marketing. If your school is marketed more as an intellectual/academically diverse school and show opps. for students who usually otherwise won’t consider the school, places like Emory may do better. However, if you continuously hype up all of the departments popular with pre-meds on tours and brochures such as neuroscience, human health, global health, and anthropology, then you know who you’ll draw. Also, I would venture that more innovation can come from other types of pre-healths such as those considering public health school as a “final” destination (as opposed to a bridge between UG and med. school). Many such students at Emory are typically the ones coming up with great projects or initiatives. We have many pre-meds that are awesome as well, but it seems the students associated with the former interests in healthcare often contribute in more interesting ways and are a bit more aggressive about putting academics in action (as opposed to approaching academics as a chore/series of checklists that you need A’s in and then doing EC’s in the spare time). Another issue is often the curriculum at some places cannot really support those who enter and are a bit beyond the pre-health level of science classes. For example, Emory no longer having honors classes has really hurt it in its ability to attract more students like the biol. major who co-founded solazyme. If you are a more “nerdy” student that is more willing to be challenged, the curriculum must have more options to support this beginning at the freshman level. </p>
<p>Making the only 2 options for first year chemistry students be a standard gen. chem class or an organic chemistry course is not going to cut it for those who not only have AP/IB/A-level credit, but have competed well in things like national science competitions and thus demand more than most students do. You can’t tell a student extremely experienced in biology that their AP/IB credit will only get them credit for one semester of the course and then not offer a more advanced option for them if they want it. You also can’t make strong non-premed (and pre-med) students take a watered down calculus based physics course as opposed to offering an even higher one for a more select group of students. All of this is the sort of crap that Emory does which naturally will attract only pre-health types or those who don’t really care to be challenged by the curriculum that much (the problem is that we aren’t necessarily the only “top” school like that). Many Ivies and better non-Ivies have mastered this tiering of first year courses that signals that the school is able to challenge students of all backgrounds including the very advanced (which is why places like Harvard, MIT, and Chicago have abstract algebra classes for freshmen. In fact, Harvard has 2 levels of it). </p>